


Jungle Virus

by MagicHats-fr (MagicHats)



Series: Clan Helawen Tales [1]
Category: Flight Rising, Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Original Character Death(s), POV First Person, POV Third Person Limited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-21 02:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 21,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17035102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicHats/pseuds/MagicHats-fr
Summary: One facet of how Clan Helawen came to be. Alternatively, putting up my flight rising nuzlocke challenge up here as a back up spot since the tumbls may not be a good alternative spot to put this besides on the main website.





	1. Prologue; rules and things.

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a heads up, this is just putting up my currently existing old nuzlocke stuff up here. The rules have been edited throughout it's original run in 2014-2015, I'm simply putting up the latest version of it after I ended the run.

This is a flight rising lair nuzlocke challenge, which will inherently come with some rules.

This is a modified rule set of the original rule set which can be found on flight rising. As such, rules are simple in some spots, but not all spots.

Ignoring lair-specific rules like clearing out a whole lair, the Main Rules are

 

 **Main Rules**  


  * Dragons can be hatched from scavenged eggs or eggs found in the coliseum(either by dragons involved in the nuzlocke or not). Always hatch an egg if found.


  * Eggs that are found in the coli by a team that isn't involved with my nuzlocke, I must flip a coin. Heads it's hatched and in the nuzlocke, tails it's not involved with the nuzlocke and I can do as I wish with it (sell/trade/raffle/etc).


  * ~~If I cannot find an egg(in the span of 1 month) I will purchase an egg(Either a nature egg or a particularly cheap egg of any flight).~~ This is no longer in effect once I pass 10 dragons total (including deaths), but will come back into effect should the dragon count fall under 3.


  * Exalt for coliseum death if it happens to be in a venue that's minimum level is greater than 8. If it's below that I may give away the dragon as an alternative.



  
**Minor rules**  


  * A dragon cannot be given a primary gene until level 10, secondary until level 15, and tertiary gene until level 20. I can give the genes when I have the money for it/after the level benchmarks but not before.


  * Scatterscrolls cannot be bought until at least one dragon is lvl 25 and then i'm restricted to one per month if it could be afforded.


  * Pics or it didn't happen - I must screenshot important happenings, which is mainly dragon deaths, egg hatchings, or finding eggs in the coliseum with nuzlocke participants. Anything outside of that is up to my discretion


  * Guardians must leave the lair after at least one month never to see the clan again. Two months is maximum amount of time a guardian hatched in this clan should stay. The first guardian hatched is the exception to the rule.


  * I can only buy dragons off the AH after I manage to hit lvl 25 with my dragons.  ~~I have an opportunity to buy a singular dragon once I hit lvl 10~~ , I cannot buy any more dragons unless I either hit lvl 25 or I wind up with only one dragon remaining in the challenge for whatever reason after that. When that comes into effect I can only make one purchase a month



  
**Baskel's plan :** **The plan is done** ~~After 6/24/15 baskel is planning something big that will be quite elaborate. Every day after then I must roll a die. If it's <3 than no current members are talked into this, if it's >3, I must then flip a coin for each member. If it's heads than they aren't buying it but if it's tails than they're sweet talked into it. If multiple dragons have tails, than I must re-flip the coins from the smaller pool until one dragon is selected from that day.  **Nanelia** and  **Tehtalretiel** are the only ones that are immune to this.~~

  * ~~If 2 dragons are persuaded, than the die roll's purpose changes. Every day after that the die must still be rolled, and if it's <2, than nothing happens, if 3/4 is rolled another clan member is talked into this, and if it's >4 than a dragon is bought off of the AH, leveled, and exalted using dragons that are in on this.~~


  * ~~Should a dragon that is talked into this faint in the coli, they are dead and baskel must find a replacement if leveling exalts becomes difficult. If needed he will attempt to outsource cooperative dragons.~~



 

**Nesting/Egg rules**

  * If dragons are bred and there is more than one egg in the nest flip a coin for every egg. Heads, it lives. Tails, it dies. Hatchlings that are counted as dead can be sold/given away if that is a viable option.


  * The above rule is not applicable to one egg nests


  * Dragons must be in the same size group or close in size to breed. No Fae x Imperials here


  * May buy/use a breed change scroll on hatched eggs shortly after hatching. Any more breed changes after that must be after the dragon is at least 1 month old fr time.



 

**Baby rules and Story Rules**

  * Major plot points are when Tehtalretiel successfully levels to 10, to 20, and then finally to 25.


  * I start out with 4 dragons. 3 will be introduced in part 1, then the last in the next part.




	2. Fleeing for our lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the story really starts to roll.

 

 

POV - Tehtalretiel

  
We had been traveling well into the afternoon and it was just turning evening now. I can't say either me or my company was in a very good mood about what had transpired hours earlier. I was not in a very good mood about it but there was nothing either of us could do. There wasn't a point to dwell on it for very long until we were safe.

  


Imperials aren't very good fliers, as it's been established by many many dragons, and I was not quite a rule to the exception. My wingspan did help to a degree but I was never comfortable with the idea of traveling by flight to anywhere before any of this happened. I could get by doing this though, as with my size and strength I could cover a lot of ground in short time. We needed that. We needed as much space as we could get.

I had a passenger with me, and she wasn't very happy about this either. I wouldn't blame her but there was no crying over spilled potions at this point. I just hoped she was doing okay given her recent wound.

  


She had gotten a bit of a scratch around her eye from what I could tell, and she had hitched a ride with me. I could tell she was clinging to my antlers, as faes did tend to perch on the antlers from many creatures if given the opportunity to have a mount. Or at least normally it was considered a mount to the fae as a lot of wild animals had antlers, but hopefully she wasn't getting any wrong idea from riding on my antlers. She was more than comfortable on my head at this point, which was good for the time being.

  
((note, image may not be accurate))

I kept flying until I saw a sheer cliff face on the side of what looked sort of like either a mountain or a large hill. It wasn't uncommon to see these smallish mountains in the Labyrinth, a greater portion of it was semi-flat areas. I had stopped to look at this as an idea formed in my head. After stealing a quick glance behind me to make sure that I had for certain lost our pursuer, I started clearing out the area in front of the cliff face. After it was clear enough I started to dig into the cliff face. I wasn't quite happy with digging but I am more efficient at doing this than my fae companion. We wouldn't make very much progress at all if she had done it. I could tell about halfway through with the awkward silence that she had probably felt at least a little guilty about not being able to contribute very much.

After a sufficient amount of time had passed, me digging and making a cave-like lair, I had managed to make a decent enough indent without bringing down the surroundings with me. Grinning at this I mentioned softly, "This should do for the night. I would hope that we don't have to go very much farther Nanelia.", softly enough for my generally loud voice not to overwhelm her.

"S'fine." she mentioned flatly. I was more than sure that she wasn't keen on dwelling very much on what had happened earlier. Honestly both of our lives changed so suddenly I would imagine that she would be taking it hard. She was only two weeks old. She had been adjusted to her lifestyle for her entire life as they raised her from the egg they came across. Sure it was considerably shorter than mine but it made no difference whether or not it was two weeks or two months.

We then settled in for the night. It wasn't a proper lair at all but it was shelter. I curled around myself and folded my wings in, trying to get comfortable as I felt Nanelia make herself comfortable in the mane around my horns. While I was more than used to this sort of predicament, as it was a taboo among Imperials to congregate in large groups without reason due to the extreme inherit danger of what  _could_ happen, I knew that fae where very social. They needed interactions, at the very least with members of their own breed. While there weren't that many faes in what was our previous home, she had ties there that were now severed and broken. I suppose to some degree I knew that I would leave eventually. It was just a shame that it had to happen like this.

As I sat there, mulling over the events of today, trying to reflect before I slept, my ears perked up. Nanelia had already fallen asleep but she wouldn't be happy about being woken up again. At least the reasoning was sound, as another dragon had meandered right into our makeshift lair. It was a tundra. They were much bigger than faes but still roughly the size of hatchlings comparatively to me, so I could have just rudely flapped my wings and knocked him out of the lair. I didn't though, opting to try a more diplomatic approach.

  


 

 

"What do you want?"

"Can I stay here? I smelled injuries and I figured maybe if I helped you would let me stay with you?".

I huffed, feeling Nanelia squirm on my forehead. Regardless if she was awake or not this was probably bugging her.

"Fine. Just don't give me a reason to throw you across this island."

I then settled down again, noting the tundra had curled himself up in what little extra space there was in this makeshift lair.

 

He looked to be a traveler of sorts. That wasn't  _too_ common, to see a lone tundra traveling. Normally they kept to flocks and herds. And his outfit did imply that he had traveled around enough to possibly know how to be a decent medic. Sure plague dragons were resilient but they weren't in the same way nature dragons were. That coupled with being in nature territory could make it slightly complicated for her to heal. We would probably talk about all of this tomorrow. By then I figured that I ought to figure out something for what we would do in the long run.

 


	3. The Long term

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another dragon gets introduced and things start to shape up.

 POV - Tehtalretiel

 

The next day I awoke to find that Nanelia and the Tundra were still there. That was good. It was nice that they hadn't left whilst I was sleeping.

Unfurling myself and letting out a yawn, I wormed my way out of the rather cramped lair. Nanelia fluttered off of my head and glided down to the ground a few feet ahead of me. The tundra took a spot next to her.

"Tundra, what's your name?" I immediately inquired. If he was going to stay with us we needed a name.

"Lothlorien" He said with a rather happy smirk.

"Alright then Lothlorien. Keep Nanelia some company and make sure her wounds are tended to while I go out for supplies." I said rather flatly. I then lumbered off into the woods.

It took several hours of gathering and scavenging to really get anywhere, and it yielded nothing but wood and sticks. This would be helpful later should I try anything ambitious. I hoped for sure that nobody would notice me in the brush due to my rather bright appearance. Being bright pink and green made it pretty hard to  _not_ notice me. As I was dragging my haul back I spotted a familiar shape lying in the underbrush.

  


 

Keion was simply laying there, looking exhausted. Aside from the obvious notion of being passed out, he also had a few gashes on him here and there. So they had ran him out too? He was much younger than me, barely even an adult. He was just a week old and was pretty small as a result. He could be more easily thrown out than I due to my size. I left of my own accord taking Nanelia with me due to her being thrown out but seeing him also thrown out was somewhat confirmation as to what I suspected. With me leaving it was more of a choice given that there were few in that lair that could rival my size and therefore make me leave by using force. Him though, he was still small enough to be forced easily enough by a coordinated group effort.

Choosing not to dwell on it, I picked him up gently with my mouth as I hauled my gathered wood back to the makeshift lair that I had called a temporary home. It seemed my little group was growing a little bit, but I would hope that it didn't grow any larger any time soon. Four mouths were enough to feed.

As I dropped him off at the opening of the lair with the wood I saw Nanelia and Lothlorien both come out, Nanelia opting to perch on him.

" _Is that Keion?_ " Nanelia asked, her frills flicking in worry.

"Yes. I figured he was thrown out for the same reason you were, doubled with the reason why I left." I said dully with a shrug.

"We were working on making the lair a bit more livable" Loth mentioned quietly.

"I dug out a smaller room in the lair for me and Nanelia to stay in. We could make it a little bigger for him to stay with us as well."

"Alright. Just don't get used to it, imperials grow like weeds in their youths." I said with a shrug. As I turned to leave to go hunting, something crossed my mind.

"Before I go though, Loth, you should come hunting with me. Nanelia can look after Keion as he sleeps there and it would be nice to have a little help with the local fauna."

I then turned to leave, with Lothlorien in tow. We needed to get some food eventually and while Loth could very well make due with eating the flora, we needed a more stable means of food for the rest of us, which meant hunting.

As we hunted we wound up encountering a rather large hive of abnormally large bees. After clearing that out and hunting other the local birds, we came back to check up on Keion, who had thankfully woken up by then.

The three of us went hunting then, as I assume that Nanelia wouldn't be interested in hunting. The fae is pretty small and while she could make a great caster I don't think she has the mindset for it.

To say that we got very much would be an overstatement.

  


We got plenty of insects which would be great for Nanelia but we did not manage to get very much else for the rest of us. We added what little food we had to the food stores and I figured we would have to ration the food for a while until we could hunt for food at a decent enough pace. Thankfully Loth had thought ahead and had made a spot to put our foodstuffs in. Tundras were good at burrowing through things, one of the few breeds actually accustomed and naturally adept at digging into the ground. Hopefully we would eventually have others that would be able to dig out lairs, as my forepaws were pretty sore from digging out the main room which I rested in yesterday. Hopefully things will start turning for the better.

We didn't get very many things in the way of materials from those creatures, and I requested to Lothlorien that we make a storage room for all the materials we had. We couldn't just leave it all out in the open, as it would probably get stolen in the night. The beeswax could prove useful as maybe a tradeable commodity from what I could tell but some of the other items weren't quite as useful in terms of trying to become self sufficient.

When we came back I noticed that within the room Lothlorien and Nanelia were going to share that she had already started building a nest for herself. This behavior was normal for faes, and I hoped Lothlorien would be okay with this new development, as it did take up a portion of the room and if they were going to share it with Keion they would need as much space as they could get before he outgrew that room.

 


	4. Digging deeper

POV - Tehtalretiel

To say that the next few days were a bit lazy in terms of what we were doing would be pretty precise.

Firstly, me and Lothlorien started working on a mine of sorts. It's not to far from the opening of our lair but if the mountain held anything of value it would be wise to take advantage of it.

From Lothlorien's findings and my (bedgrudging) assistance, we managed to get a decent haul to put into the storage room. A little bit of clay, some mixed ores and stones and sand were some of the spoils. We did manage to find some Blue quartz and silver, which is promising for the area. I know that some will put quite the hefty price on pretty looking ores just for collecting, and some would be more than keen on using this for forging. If it would help with more peaceful means of relations to other clans, it would come in handy. Oddly enough we wound up finding a bunch of fertility statues. I resigned to keeping them if only because it was just an odd find.

We had also found some clay pots, which were broken upon finding them. Similarly we found a bunch of broken penny jars, I pocketed the money and put the glass shards in a safe place so they wouldn't hurt anybody. Yes it was a bit selfish but as the sort of appointed leader I was probably the one in charge of financial matters. I even managed to find a couple of amber stones, with mosquitoes trapped inside them. I kept them for the novelty because they were pretty. Loth was rather confused that he had managed to find fossilized fish. While I knew rationally speaking that tide changes could cause such a thing over a long enough period of time, it also confused me since I didn't know whether or not the known world had changed that much to affect the tides. Unless one of the deities were keen enough to answer that question I supposed the world might never really know the origin of the local fossilized fish.

Keion has been a bit restless and has been getting more adventurous, wanting to go hunting more often. Despite what had happened he still seemed to have a sense of adventure and wanted to go out to get food. I went along with it, if only to get him some more basic experience at combat. The unique thing about Imperials is that we can be both very physically adept or magically adept due to how we were created. Since we had more raw magic running in us it was both to our benefit and a fatal flaw. As a species we could become both exceedingly excellent casters and brutal warriors, which wasn't a luxury that most breeds had.

He seemed more social though, a lot more social than I. It looked like Lothlorien and Nanelia were a bit more comfortable talking to him than me due to this. I did keep my distance but it was at least reasonable given why. Keion was young and naive, he didn't know very much of imperials save what one looked like. It probably caught him by suprise when he was thrown out due to our previous home having several others and probably didn't have the room to accommodate for such. I was more than sure that Nanelia and Lothlorien also didn't know, given how they seemed to not react well to me distancing myself despite taking the mantle of clan leader.

 

Me, Loth, and Keion decided to go hunting later that day. We were slowly but surely getting better at combating and hunting the local fauna. It was a bit too easy for me, as I could crush most with a hand or make them a unpleasant red splatter with a flick of my tail. Aside from the point, we did manage to get a few interesting things amongst the normal loot of foods. A leafy pack which contained some ivy and money in it, an acuity fragment(had to explain that to Loth and Keion. Took more explaining the difference between hybrid ones, normal ones and elemental ones given it was a zephyr acuity fragment). Keion did have a bit of a struggle since he was still young and inexperienced at battle, not to mention a little bit callous and prideful. He wound up having to bow out a little more oftenly then I would have liked as a result. Maybe it was just me throwing myself into combat a bit too much like some of the others of our previous clan did, especially one of the imperials. Patience is key, and while I may be very invested in maintaining our little ragtag group, he might not be quite as interested.

On the brighter side, we did a few smaller lair changes and now the main room of which I rest in is slightly bigger, and the entrance has been changed so it wasn't gigantic. I would have to stoop down a bit to get in, but it would be better this way then have it be so big that a decent sized harpy flock could fly in, let alone several swarms of raptorik. Sure it was unlikely that harpies would venture this deep into the jungle but it was the raptoriks that one had to worry about. I've been more aware of the issues with sudden separation from the clan than Keion and Nanelia had been. I'd gotten several comments from keion about being to paranoid but we weren't a clan that had an army, let alone combatant warriors. We wound up having a conversation about this before we retired for the night.

"You worry a bit to much, who in the right mind would mess with you? You're the biggest of them all and that would scare them off."

"But there is power in numbers, as I'm sure you've undoubtedly figured out by now. I could scare one or two of them, gods,  _you_ would be able to scare a few of them. If there were tens of them, or hundreds of them in some cases, it wouldn't matter how big or how strong you look."

Keion gave me a funny look before he went off to bed. I supposed the reality of this hadn't set in for him, unlike with Nanelia. I was sure that traveling alone up until now, that Lothlorien was well adjusted to the threats and dangers that beastclans brought with being in a smaller group. I let out a sigh and curled myself again in the main room. In the event that marauders entered in the night, dragonkind or beastclan, I was sure that putting myself infront of my smallish clan was the right thing to do, both for intimidation reasons(as who would reasonably want to steal from a dragon who could squish several breeds with ease and be a worthy opponent for others of the larger variety.) and that if anything, I would be a good enough distraction and wall that they would manage to escape and be safe.

I hoped that while I was far enough away from the what I used to briefly call my home that they wouldn't try to cross me for being too close to their territory, I hoped that we were close enough that the reputation kept the beastclans from actively raiding dragon camps and lairs. It was a common occurrence in flights to have pockets of safety and pockets of danger in terms of existing with beastclans, but whenever there were a group of experienced warriors living in the same lair, beastclans either tended to steer clear out of fear, or did raids more often to see if they could get glory from felling such mighty foes. Normally the latter didn't happen very often as after the first few self proclaimed "dragon slayers" had been thrown out or killed, they backed off. It did seem to happen every once in a blue moon though, that a beastclan member would fell some mighty dragon and would be proclaimed a hero for the deed. I hated all the needless violence but I wasn't in a good place to object. That issue was not an easy one to solve, and i'm sure it wouldn't happen for quite a while.

 

I had bigger plans for tomorrow. After a little bit more training, I was going to push our little group into a different territory to help broaden their experience. While I wasn't keen on really raising an army, I figured if I could work towards having a few combat experienced dragons within my clan, that the possibility of disputes would go down. At least for disputes that would wind up with us as the loosing party.

 


	5. A rotten day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keion has a bad day and decides to share with the class

POV - Keion

Today's been a rotten day  
  
It's been rather slow as of late. I'm starting to get worried about Teht. He's getting more and more obsessed with leading us. I can't say that i'm particularly happy about this.  
  
He sends me out on chores and it's boring. It's become a thing where it's  _me_  who has to do the chores. Not Nanelia, not Lothlorien,  _me_. It would be nice if I could have a break but Teht has the eyes of a hawk. He get's me more things to do. Go make the storage room bigger, go out digging, go get food.  
  
It's grating on my nerves but it's also just slightly worrying.  
  
I did find a chest this one time.  
  
  
  
Since Teht wasn't around he couldn't  _tell me_  not to open it. So I did just that, busting the lock with my forepaw(or hand as some dragons would call it).  
  
  
  
I really shouldn't have opened it. I overheard him saying this one time that unopened chests tend to sell really well. When I returned to the lair I lied about it. He didn't need to know that I opened the chest, just that I found a bunch of junk and a empty chest. I don't think Loth believed me but as long as I didn't get into trouble from Teht I would be alright.  
  
One of my other chores was to go visit some dragon named pinkerton. I didn't really understand since up until now I wasn't the one to visit him. I was pleasantly surprised when I ran off with something from his pile(I didn't stay to ask about taking anything from it, for all I know visiting him was probably for something else).  
  
  
  
It was a delicate flower crown. When I came back I gave it to Nanelia, I figured that she would like it. She was more than happy given how much her fins were waiving around. I didn't understand very much about fae and their body language(since their voices are rather monotone) aside from the fact that they move their fins around when talking.  
  
It was then that Teht had decided to take the four of us out. We wound up going deeper into those woods and apparently it was for training.  
  
  
  
Nanelia would watch safely from the sidelines while we worked on hunting and defeating the local wildlife. It was a bit tough at times since these creatures were different from the great big field we started from, but it wasn't too challenging. Teht made a weird comment about Loth though. Said "It was unusual for a tundra to want to be a caster". I didn't care, since as long as he was helping it didn't matter too much. Besides Lothlorien could be anything he wanted to be. Sure Teht was the leader but was there really some unspoken code about whether or not certain kinds of dragons could be casters?  
  
Disaster struck though.  
  
We wound up getting confronted by a basilisk and a cockatrice. Those are _nasty_ pieces of nature. Half reptilian half avian nightmares really. They had a foul temper and didn't care about what they would attack or were getting attacked by. All they cared about was food. There were also the rumors that they could inexplicably turn things to stone but that was stupid. There weren't any creatures out there, magical or not, that could turn something to stone just by looking at it. Maybe the demented look in their eyes made dragons freeze up for a minute. I know that's what happened with me. It also didn't help that there was no set size for how big or little they were. The Basilisk was huge, almost unnaturally so and the Cockatrice was at least as big as Lothlorien.  
  
That's why I went looking for a fight with the pair. If I could bring them down it would be good eating for a  _long while_. I wish we could just go back to our old lair with the others. I still don't quite understand why they threw me out but I wish I didn't have to do this just for food. I had nearly gotten the big one down, as it was bleeding from the neck. It then managed to pin me down with it's feet. I remember staring into those red eyes and seeing nothing but hate. An emptiness that was slightly filled with annoyance and hate.  
  
It lunged for me and I hesitated. I wish that I didn't pause like some hatchling that was being stared down by a centaur. I did though. I saw it bring it's sharp jagged beak down to tear my throat out. I should have tried anything, wriggling out of it's grasp, biting it's face,  _anything_.  
  
Tehtalretiel dove infront of me. I figured since he was bigger and much stronger, being easily the largest out of all of us, that he would be fine. That he would literally send it flying and we would have food.  
  
  
  
I was wrong. It dislodged me from that Basilisk's grip sure but he didn't get out unscathed.  
  
There was a series of growls and screeches that came from both parties as the basilisk proceeded to rip off several of the gems on him and then peck at the spots that they were there. With a mighty growl I managed to knock down the Basilisk and knock it out but the damage was done. The woods were silent save our ragged and scared breaths. Me and Lothlorien looked at eachother at the grim sight while Nanelia dove down and started trying to cradle the giant's muzzle, trying to hold back sobs.  
  
  
Teht was laying there.  
  


 

 

_Teht was just laying there in a pool of blood._

 

__

 

_With our combined efforts, me and Lothlorien managed to drag him back to the lair without him bleeding out too much. I'm sure we scared off any of the wildlife with the ruckous of noise to even get him back. It took even longer for Loth to manage to get him mended. All the bandages that we did have were covered in blood by the time we were through and Loth just kept pacing back and fourth, nervously looking between me and Tehtalretiel, who was still unconscious. Nanelia was perched on my head, now wearing the daisy crown. Her fins were pressed down against her and she was silent. With the look in Loth's eyes he was desperately worried about something. When I asked he wouldn't talk, he just kept pacing back and fourth.  
  
 ** _Today was a rotten day._**_   
  


* * *

__  
  
  
  
  
  
  


((that was a close call. I decided to hightail it out of there and flee after that basilisk got a crtitical on Teht. He's gonna be taking a bit of an in-story break for the next part. Stuff happens I know but that was a really close call.))

 


	6. A slightly worse day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teht recounts how things went as he recovered.

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

I awoke after that dreadful encounter with the basilisk. Blearly blinking, I raised my head slightly and managed to get a glance of my surroundings before pain wracked my neck.  
  
Gembond, as pretty as it was, originally started as a disease. It was seen to a degree as a sign of weakness in some clans, and while I traveled around trying to find a proper clan to settle down in(before  _almost_ settling in the most recent one; at that point I sort of decided that I might as well start my own.). I would continuously grow gems that would occasionally fall off. Some were pretty much stuck to my skin and scales.  
  
That Basilisk had ripped some of the more cemented ones out of my neck and started tearing at the now revealed skin and flesh(since skin did occasionally come off with the gems if removed forcefully). I suppose my callousness payed off if my clanmates indeed had dragged me back to the lair and bandaged me up.  
  
It was more than obvious that not very many of us were really cut out for trying to stake it out on our own. I suppose dragons that found their clans have struggles before they really succeed. At least Keion would be alright. I really shouldn't have gotten  _that_  attached to the youngling, but he did feel like a son to me at this point.  
  
Nanelia then rushed into my vision, begging me to not move around, as it would make things even worse for my injuries.  
  
I wasn't aware that the basilisk, as large as the particular one was, was  _that_ close to killing me outright. I had pushed our little group a bit too hard and now I personally had paid the price. I would have to make sure to get more training in those fields before having any more hunts out in those woods.  
  
Lothlorien, who had been tending to me, had then informed me that I had been out for several days. Keion, Nanelia, and him had been taking care of him and the duties I had normally done in the meantime. It was nice they valued me rather than just run, as I figured at least Keion would do. What I could pick up on him was that he was surprisingly skittish for his personality.  
  
It was then that they informned me of another development.  
  
   
  
Whilst out gathering, Keion and nanelia had stumbled upon an abandoned water egg in a stream, which was keeping it properly hydrated, but unhatched. They had brought it back and had been incubating it. I frowned slightly at that, as I figured another mouth to feed would be more of a burden than really a benefit. Loth then mentioned that from what he could tell of the surrounding area, it seemed like it was likely the result of a beastclan raid. There were several possibilities as to what beastclan in particular(since there were several talonok and centaur outposts in the maze that was this jungle island). It had seemed likely that it was either hidden there or more likely dropped there by the perpetrators of said raid.  
  
I was going to object about keeping the egg but then Nanelia had held it to my face. Apparently they were using my(rather limp and curled) body as a means of keeping it warm whenever two or all three of them had to leave the lair. Nanelia herself had been keeping an eye on it for most of the days, making sure that it was safe whilst also not being crushed by it(as the egg was pretty big in relation to her size). It was clear that the three of them had become rather attached to it, especially Nanelia who took the opportunity to reinforce this.  
  
"We can't just put it back! What if it's parents are gone! We found it all alone!"  
  
  
"Nanelia, what if the parents of said egg are looking for it? Besides do you think we have the  _room_ for another mouth to feed? Keion and I are going to take up a lot of room just by ourselves, do you think it would be wise to keep it?"  
  
I said, wincing every once in a while due to my neck injuries. My voice had sounded a lot more gravely. The vain part of me hoped that it was just due to being out for several days and that a proper drink of water would clear my throat out. I had noticed that I had been bandaged up from my head to the base of my neck.  
  
The next few days were painfully slow(both figuratively and literally) due to increasingly bad weather. What little knowledge of the outer goings on that I did have, was that there was a big dominance battle between the first four flights. It was getting rather intense and was whipping up a storm. When dominance got intense it did tend to have an affect on the surroundings, depending on what flights were doing the battles. With the last particularly large one of my knowledge before this being a bout between lightning and plague which caused really harsh times to fall on the lands for a short period of time.  
  
We wound up staying inside for the most part save Loth or Keion occasionally going out for food and supplies. Nanelia wasn't big enough or strong enough to handle a storm well on her own but she didn't seem to mind, being more keen to keep an eye on the egg, which was now residing beside my bandaged face. I only managed to get a few cuts and scrapes on my face thankfully, as my neck was where the damage was really dealt. It did still make it uncomfortable to be around an egg that was making bubbles.  
  
as the rain got intense we wound up all huddling inside my carved out cavern, sitting around a makeshift fire to keep warm.  
  
They hadn't been paying attention when I heard the cracking of the egg. Of course I reacted first by scooting my head away(rather painfully) since I didn't want to be that close to a hatching egg. It seemed like the three others had held their breath and had held off on actually assisting the hatchling out of it's egg. That was a somewhat common thing among clans, but I digress.  
  
As I heard the cracking I also started to hear muffled squeaks as the hatchling made progress on escaping their egg. I stayed out of it to the best of my abilities, if only because of the fact being that I was way to big to really interact well with a hatchling that was new to the world.  
  
I turned(quite painfully) to get a look at it, and had been met with deep blue eyes staring up at my nose.  
  
  
  
She was a tundra, and a rather tiny one at that, much smaller than nanelia despite the larger egg that she was in. Her deep blue coat complimented her eyes. She had been squeaking as she tried to get the gunk out of her eyes, but once she did the first thing she had seen was me. I snorted, which blew a small gust at wind towards her, but she didn't falter in that stare. Rather, she started approaching me, smelling me and making softer squeaks.  
  
She reminded me of one of the warrior of the previous clan. She was a water flighted dragon of similar blue looks. Sure they weren't identical at all but seeing those deep blue eyes look up at at me did bring back some memories. She then started making quiet squeaks as she started trying to cuddle next to my gigantic muzzle, now feeling content that it had found a parental figure.  
  
The fire was dimming, and Nanelia decided to sleep ontop of my head again, curled up in my mane. The tundra quietly watched her glide over her and onto my head. She seemed really quiet after the initial chaos that was hatching. Keion had decided to retire to the other side of the room, leaning up against the wall. Lothlorien Had decided to stay close-ish to the hatchling and me, opting to try and sleep under one of my wings. I figured he was also getting a paternal feeling about all of this, him also being a tundra and all.  
  
  
  
  
  
I figured at this point she had imprinted on me. There was no point in trying to get rid of her now. She was slightly endearing and on top of that she probably wouldn't last a day out there on her own. There would be an outcry from my lairmates about the ethical reasonings of just dumping a hatchling that now thought you were it's parent out there.  
  
The worst part of it all was that the little hatchling had managed to worm her way into my relations quicker than any of the others. She was one of us, and I would have to look after her as my own like I would any of the other clanmates.  
  
I would bring up the topic of naming her tomorrow mourning, hopefully the storm will clear enough for things to take a better turn. Chaia seemed like a good name but I didn't want to make a decision without at least getting their input. Speaking of the hatchling I could feel her push herself against my muzzle as she slept, from the howling of the winds and the sound of the pouring rain in the jungle and against the lair's entrance.  
  
When tomorrow morning came everybody went along with the name idea. Since I had been feeling better, Me and the few others went out to go hunting while Nanelia would watch Chaia.  
  
  
  
Things were okay until we were assailed by a flock of wildwood owls, led by a Sakura owl that was larger and more scarred than normal. The fact that they so boldly took on dragons should have been a large red flag for us but we didn't think of it.  
  
  
It came upon us unexpectedly. Keion had managed to take one down by himself. I could tell he was happy for himself for getting stronger.  
  
  
Things took a surprisingly sharp turn downwards in the battle, and before either me or Loth knew it the the remaining two owls had proceeded to kill him,  _rip him open, and had started eating him_. The two of us just stared for a moment before killing the other two owls.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I had to give him a proper Imperial funeral. I told Lothlorien to fly back to the lair and tell Nanelia the news, to keep an eye on the still young Chaia, and to tell her that I was going to be the one to bury him. I was the only one out of us(that I was aware of at least) that knew the rites of burial for imperials. _It had to be me._  
  
  
I had to drag him as far away from the premise as I could before even starting the rites in of themselves. It's a grizzly business, because if I didn't follow through in the proper way an emperor would rise. Other breeds had it lucky, not being made from the remains of the first age. Because it could persist for so long it would simply continue to exist, regardless of the mortal state the imperials it would be contained in. They would rise again with the desire to keep fighting like the eight deities did during that age, regardless if the deities themselves had made a truce or not. This blood lust for battle tended to reanimate imperial corpses, and if there were enough in the area the powerful magics would morph them together, creating a much larger emperor than if it were just one body. There was a distinction between emperors depending upon how many imperials were intertwined into the mass(a lone reanimated imperial corpse being a  _prince_ , a  _king_ being having up to ten heads, and a  _high emperor_ having the maximum eleven heads).  
  
As I continued with the rites(of which I wouldn't tell a single soul unless they were directly going to help me bury him) I thought about all of this. To some degree it was quite the folly for Lightweaver to make dragons from the very sparks and embers of life, since it was difficult to extinguish them and they tended to absorb all the magics around them like a fire would to tinder. All emperors wanted was to amass as much magic to fuel themselves in their dying moments so rather than fading out like most breeds they go down in a big blazing fire.  
  
  
  
  
I decided I would call that a day and the rest of the day would be spent in silence. That is what had happened when I had arrived at the lair. It brought the morale down and everybody was solemnly silent for the rest of the day. The only one who wasn't silent was Chaia, who seemed to be confused as to where the now late imperial was if he wasn't here.  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  



	7. A brighter day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start getting a little better

POV - Tehtalretiel

Things were really quiet for the past few days.  
  
Chaia had managed to grow into a young and curious adult. She's not much bigger than Nanelia at the moment, but it would be more than if everybody in the lair had at least some combat experience.  
  
After a crash course class in battling I figured I would rather wait until we at least had another in our ranks before opting to put another person in our little group. It could be days, weeks, or even months before we find another egg like that. Sure it's probably better that way but random coincidence did wind up giving us Chaia's egg.  
  
Nanelia hasn't spoken very much, except to Chaia. She seems pretty bitter about that towards me and Lothlorien. Nowdays it's only us that actually hunts and provides for our little clan. Nanelia certainly doesn't seem fond of the idea of leaving her newly built amber nest very much, with Keion's death probably spurring it on.  
  
In other news, things have been really brightening up from the brisk winter. While the temperature doesn't change all that much in the nature flight's lands it does drop in temperature briefly every winter. It's nice to see it getting better though.  
  
  
Hopefully our little hovel will stay unnoticed by other dragons and beastclans, at least for Nanelia's sake. I left of my own accord, sure, but she was thrown out by that last clan. Word could have very well spread for dragons in the area to keep an eye out for a particular white fae with red eyes out in nature territory. It really did depend from clan to clan whether or not they would tolerate plague dragons in them (due to being in the nature flight, the one most opposite of plague). Some were accepting, others were not. It was a shame that those who weren't accepting in that clan drove her out without trying to talk anything out with the rest of the clan. Those ones might have no idea whatsoever on what even happened.  
  
  
Chaia has taken to us as a great big family. She's probably going to get at least a little bigger, but given my size, moving may be in order soon. Loth has done his best to make our little hole in the ground more comfortable for me but it would just be easy to try and find a better place to reside once we are all ready, as constantly modifying the lair would grate on everybody's nerves over time. I would hate to put that off more than I need to but at this conjecture we can't drop everything and leave. 


	8. Hard work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things continue to get better and some dragons get stronger.

POV - Tehtalretiel

****

The days have been blending as we have been trying to bring Chaia and Nanelia up to speed, so as not to leave anybody behind alone in the lair.

She's taken well to combat, and is more than eager to get out of the lair now that she's hit her big growth spurt between youth and adulthood. She's not quite keen on talking, but her bright voice does brighten up the lair while the rest of us move on from Keion's death. The two have been working on training in what we've dubbed the training fields.

Me and loth have been holding back from pressing onto further places to get food from, given we only have two dragons of our experience. I told him we would wait until they are as powerful as we are before heading out, or at the very least until there's more dragons so we don't wind up leaving a dragon by themselves. With the beastclans about, there would eventually come the problem of beastclan raised. The idea of leaving nanelia or chaia behind only for them to get ambushed was not pleasant at all.

 

 

The two had gone out for a dusk "training session", or really more an excuse for them to have their own adventures out while we did duties around the lair, like smoothing out the rooms, as while I hated digging, my immense size made for easily dug out rooms, if a bit rough around the edges. Lothlorien took it upon himself to make the rooms more comfortable, and I figured it was all that fur on him that was motivating him. How he (Or Chaia for that matter) managed to get around having that dense fur in nature territory was beyond me aside from the staying in the lair's tunnels.

 

They brought back something rather odd though.

 

 

It was a sparrowmouse. A particularly young one at that. Apparently the two had swatted a smallish flock of sparrowmice around in order to get food. After moving on to other prey they had noticed that one had started to follow them. It looked like a fledgling, just barely able to fly and the vermin must have imprinted on Nanelia, as it had been following her around the lair once they had returned. I think it brings her comfort to an extent in the wake of what had happened.

 

Not much else has happened though. It's kind of dreary, which given the time of the year is fitting; Shadow's festival is right around the corner and since we do share a border with that flight, their version of darkness is probably seeping into the surrounding flights in preparation for what's to come.

 


	9. Darkness descends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The annual Trickmurk Circus is upon the gang, let's see what happens next!

 

 

POV - Tehtalretiel

  
It was drawing time for the last part of the death rites for Keion.

The fact that I would leave the area for safer places. I'd hate risking an emperor rising, but it was rather conflicting. I could take my little clan with me, but I knew they would hate the idea of moving so suddenly. Chaia would take it especially hard, given it's the only place she's called home before now.

I could tell to some degree with the way she was pacing around the lair every once in a while, with a far off look in her eye, that maybe she would inexplicably see it coming. Water dragons were known for their ability for future sight, among other things(like quite possibly having specialized gills).

 

The only hold up was that there was a holiday, and I knew Lothlorien (being a shadow dragon like myself) would want to partake. And partake he did, running off leaving the others behind for his search of pine cones.

He would go off into shadow territory and gather them in large satchels to take to that festivity drake, who would trade them for festival items. At one point he had came back wrapped in a large thorny vine. He had also came back with a bear at one point. Said it would help the clan as it was smarter than most bears due to the association with a deity. Sure we couldn't hold a conversation with it but we could still use it as a helping paw to the clan.

He dumped the findings not related to his amassing of shadow items at the front of the lair for me, Nanelia, and Chaia to sift through.

 

He at one point dropped a lightning egg. When I questioned him about where he got it he shrugged. It was a bit illogical to find a lightning egg abandoned in  _shadow_ territory but it was still another egg, which meant another mouth, which was more of a reason to move, as even with modifications from Chaia and Loth it was still becoming rather cramped. I had brought up the idea of moving to them earlier but they said they would think about it. I hadn't presented the part that it was the one unfinished part of the rites and I was staying, risking my safety, with them to make sure they were okay.

 

When the egg did indeed hatch, it was met with mixed reactions.

 

 

While She was indeed a tiny little drake, she was also a guardian.

  


She would eventually leave for her charge once she grew of age. What that charge would be I don't know (it could be another dragon in the lair or one across the lands for all I knew). I certainly hoped it was the former, as it would be really nice to have another dragon around that could help out with the hunting, if for a short while.

She would make a fine member of our little group. Sure it may be uprooted by the end of this week to a much safer location in the nature flight(as the looming threat of Keion's burial, among being found out by the dragon that drove nanelia and me out of our former clan was not something worth staying for). As opposed to Chaia, who was a rather quiet hatchling Seliana, as i've named her, was a rather loud one. She made it very clear that she was going to be a fighter.

 

 

Chaia and Nanelia haven't really been getting along well, but Nanelia's relationship with me seems to at least be getting better after a period of receiving the silent treatment. Chaia's ability for future sight was astounding though. She wasn't really willing to share it with anybody but me(As apparently i'm more of a father figure than Lothlorien was). Apparently one of her first memories was seeing a vision of the future, specifically Keion's death. She doesn't remember him well, or really understood what it had meant up until recently.

Nanelia had let it slip that me, him, and Loth had went hunting and he had "never returned". Chaia had then shared her vision with Nanelia, which caused Nanelia to get really angry at her, which caused Chaia to come home confused about all of this, and coming to me for help.

I was beginning to think that Nanelia was letting Keion's death affect her too much. While I could understand mourning, Her resentment of the rest of us due to Keion's death was beginning to wear on everybody. Hopefully she'll straighten out soon, because if this went on too long there would eventually be a fight, and with her being the smallest it could very well end up killing her.

We also found a Forest nymph today. She's taken to Chaia rather well. I was going to go talk to Nanelia before packing things up and moving. Nanelia's taken to looking after the young Seliana along with Chaia. In slightly brighter news, aside from the bandages on my face, I can safely remove the bandages on my body from my grievous injuries. It had healed (for the most part) by now and It was safe to really get back into the swing of hunting.

 


	10. Elaborations

POV - Tehtalretiel

****

After a while of Lothlorien's mad gathering of pinecones, and the rest of us trying to maintain the lair in his stead (as for the most part when not out hunting/casting with us). He was pretty good about being a medic for the most part, but his focus on the holiday was starting to become worrying. Mostly in that he went out to gather pinecones and hadn't came back.

He seemed like a renegade drifter when he came upon Nanelia and I that one fateful night. I was more than sure that he could handle himself but Nanelia was worried. Infact she's still worried. I'm sure she's worried now as a matter of fact. I had to reassure her monotone complaints that he would come back. Chaia had mentioned that he would anyways, quite bluntly. It was more of a statement that he was invested in staying with us and not just her having a vision. Nanelia still worried though.

On the much brighter side, the bear that he dragged out of the tangled wood is very helpful around the lair. Eerily quiet but more than smart and helpful with Selina. I've had it keep an eye on the girl whenever Chaia wasn't around. It's not that I didn't trust Nanelia, it was just that the guardian was a particularly large hatchling, being roughly the same size as her upon hatching and steadily growing.

Nanelia's been keeping to herself in her amber nest. I will take care and try to take it with us when we move, along with most of our packed supplies. Once Loth comes back I'll present the clan with the fact that we are moving. If Nanelia gets too pushy, i'll explain the last part of the burial rites, and the importance of making sure emperors didn't happen. I've heard that entire clans have been wiped out due to milder emperors, should a powerful one pop up, it would probably take the gladekeeper herself to remove the problem. While I don't think any of them would admit it, me taking charge of our little clan was what helped us survive so far. Should I just leave, it would be much harder on them.

 

She's been taking it rough, and I think she needs somebody to talk to. Lothlorien and Chaia have been the ones talking to her the most recently(disregarding the slight rift she's had with Chaia and Lothlorien's sudden disappearance.). She's always been a bit distant towards me.

I decided to try and talk things out with her, for once in a while. I craned my neck up to her amber nest and poked it (very) gently with my nose, as to get her attention.

"Nanelia?"

"Hmmm" she hummed in her monotone voice, as always when she crawled out of the nest onto my muzzle. She could occasionally have inflections in her manners of speech but for the most part it was very.... blank. Flat and blank.

"Do you want to talk?" I said quietly. Me being as large as I was, it came with a naturally loud and deep voice. I didn't want to overwhelm the fae by being too loud. With Loth and Chaia I could get away with it, but with Nanelia I was always a little bit quieter.

"No."

"Why not? You've been having a rough time, as you've made clear with everybody."

"I don't want to talk with anybody right now."

"Will you talk when you're ready to talk to somebody?"

"... yes."

"Do you want to sit on my head?"

She perched herself on my antlers. She took the question as a invitation, which while annoying, I would tolerate if it was just her.

 

Then her sparrowmouse made itself comfortable on my head. I had nearly forgotten that the thing was still around. It was particularly noisy for the most part but it had been quiet for the last few days due to Nanelia's melancholy disposition.

My face pulled into a frown but it would slide. At least it wasn't chaia trying to sit on my head. While she was still a hatchling, she had taken up Nanelia's perching habit and would sit on my head. It was a bit uncomfortable and i'm happy that hadn't carried over into her adulthood (or at least after her big growth spurt).


	11. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the whole group huddles and has a serious discussion

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

By the time Loth came back from his little “expedition” of the more shadowwy parts of the surroundings, Seliana had grown quite a bit, being larger than most of the others (save me).

She was also starting to develop an attitude issue.

Thankfully since I stuck around the lair the most, I was able to keep her in line. It was obvious that she really only accepted my authority because I was much larger than her. At one point she had flung Chaia across the main room in one of her few temper tantrums. She was getting close to the adolescence growth spurt that all dragons have, when their bodies begin to look like full grown dragons rather than large hatchlings.

She didn’t take Lothlorien coming back well, half out of simply not recognizing him. I couldn’t say she was entirely in the wrong, because he had amassed enough things to look like he was an ambassador for the shadow flight.

The most striking things besides the emblem floating above his head was the brambles that covered him. His clothing had lost it’s red coloring from being in the darkest parts along the shadow borders too long.

Seliana had flung him out once he entered the main room.

A bit of a spat had broken out after that, of which I had to break up between the two dragons. Those two being Chaia and Seliana. It was starting to get to her patience with her attitude and she was more than certain that she was sticking up for him. 

 

After that, I brought up the idea of us moving to a better location, and it was met with mixed reviews. Nanelia was a bit put off but went with it, mostly because the two tundras had said they would go with it, and the guardian youngling had been a bit  _too_ eager to go along with my word.

Nanelia had asked why though, and I explained that we couldn’t stay as close to her previous clan(as I really didn’t spend more than a few days before being outed alongside her in that clan) due to that whole issue, not to mention the customary(and very important) death rites for Keion.

It was then that Lothlorien actually asked about why he found us by ourselves when he first stumbled upon us.

“Why then, Tehtalretiel, do you want so much space from that clan? Have you wronged them? Had Nanelia done something wrong?" 

"Well…. It’s not easy to say this…”

“I’m diseased” Nanelia said flatly.

“What?” Loth and Chaia had said in unison. I don’t think Seliana had cared to much because she had stopped listening at that point.

 

“I’m diseased. They threw me out because a plague had broken out within the areas and they had found that I had the disease. Keion was also a carrier but I know the disease will get to me. I won’t die due to being a plague dragon but it will still harm me eventually.” She said.

“Why wouldn’t they just-” Chaia had started before Nanelia had interupted, flicking her fins around in some sort of display.

“Me and Keion were the most likely carriers of this disease that was spreading through the Labyrinth. Since there weren’t that many of us plague dragons to begin with, and the two of us were the most likely ones to be exposed. We were liabilities and they threw us out to keep the rest safe”.

That just left them speechless. They didn’t think that a clan in the nature flight, the one where many a healer and medic came from, would be so keen to jump back into the violent rivalry and hatred that the plaguemother and gladekeeper had in ages long past, even if they’ve gotten over it themselves with a shaky truce.

She had been really blunt about her abberation. I’ve seen cases of it before, and while it will kill most, faes tend to be the only sort that make it out alive, particularly female faes. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would wreck her wings and leave her grounded.

“We need the space anyways, between getting away from where keion was buried, and not getting in trouble for being so close to that clan with Nanelia in our company.”.

“ _Can’t we just get rid of her?_ ” Seliana had said, uninterested.

“No!” Chaia had shouted.

“Make me then” Seliana said, starting towards the fae.

Another spat between the two broke out, and again I had to split it up.

 

“ _Seliana_. She is part of our group. We can’t just get rid of her. She is going to come with us when we leave in three days. Be happy that I wouldn’t just as easily discard  _you_  when we leave.”

She growled and headed to where she slept in the lair. While I could have been nicer, It seemed like it didn’t phase her at all. I will have to deal with it once we moved to the new lair. It was a pain that Seliana would only respond to me, and even then that was a stretch. At least she acknowledged my authority. 


	12. Departures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bustling little group finally moves to a new destination!

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

Seliana was reasonably grumpy when she hit the growth spurt.  
  
We still departed, and there was a lot of tension in the air as we were flying out to a safer location. It was eerily quiet as our little group was flying, with nanelia riding on my head again, as she had finally started showing outward signs of her Abberation.  
  


The Abberation had eaten away at her wings at this point, and it would render her (mostly) Flightless. Sure there were ways to get around that and help dragons who lost their flying ability to fly again (something Arcane and Wind dragons had a knack for), but for the moment she was going to be “landbound” as they call it until we can come up with something. 

We had been flying for quite a while until we were a decent ways away from the old lair (we took what little we had with us). As opposed to the cliff face we had carved our lair out of, it was a series of mounds and hills, close-ish to a mountain of sorts. I had taken our little rag tag group away from the dragonhome and tangled wood borders that our previous clan was located by, and had taken us towards the light border. 

I wouldn’t cross it, because it’s not easy to drag a clan from one flight’s territory to another. While the gods and goddesses wouldn’t mind traveler's passing through, in order to actually move there we would have to send them offerings and hope they would accept. Not doing that could incur their wrath, mostly through proxy of native clans within the territory. It would be asking for too much trouble. If I could have though, I would go to the shifting expanse, because I know at that point if the Iblivien clan was still tailing us for whatever reason, they wouldn’t dare step out of line and cause a inter-flight conflict in the name of whatever reason they would have for tailing us. 

I might have been a touch paranoid, but with the strongest imperial in that clan being rather… strange, I would rather not risk it if he decides to tail us. He was the leader of their guards. I was more than aware of the clan’s original purpose and the fact that they still did that stuff without a decent amount of the members knowing. He took his job seriously, and as a result he could very well take me down in a single go due to battle experience alone. He could fell mantarunes with no problem, so an imperial probably wouldn’t be any different. 

 

Back to our new settings, it was a rather hilly area with very large hills and a decent amount of trees within and surrounding it. It was lucky the area didn’t seem to have any other clans contesting it. I assume part of it was simply that it was an almost island like area that was secluded. It was still technically everbloom garden territory and not gladevine area, not that it mattered that greatly. It did somewhat, if only because the everbloom gardens were little (relatively) untouched edens from beastclans. I didn’t want to get involved with that business, nor any other scuffles. 

We took our time, the four of us able to carve out our new lair in doing just that. Seliana wasn’t too happy about it. I could tell it was partially just in her guardian nature to keep moving. She didn’t want to stay here and work. She then went off to go exploring. 

By the time she came back it was getting dark and Chaia was becoming weary of waiting on her with Nanelia. The pair were very close again, if only because the two of them thought of themselves as better than Seliana. 

I was sitting there with them, alongside Lothlorien. The two of us had become decent friends, and I would consider him a second in command. After she came back and explained herself, we retired for the night. It was a long day, covering so much space through flight.


	13. Arrivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They gang gets settled and some stuff happens!

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

We had a rough time settling in our new home in the long term. Seliana was getting more and more restless with wanderlust. Chaia was also having a hard time adjusting to the change, as were the others. I could tell that Nanelia was having a particularly rough time due to her (hopefully temporary) flightlessness.  
  
We would have to keep that abberation a secret from any of the other nearby clans in the area. While it wasn't common for it to kill off dragons, it still did have the potential to get that far, not to mention with that other outbreak that caused her to be thrown out from that clan in the first place. Better to be thrown out and able to leave than be deemed a threat and contained. It was rather ironic to think about, given that I picked up gembond as a disease and now she had her abberation. we seemed to have sickly dragons as well as healthy ones. Maybe if I could find a  _willing_ nature healer, or quite possibly a plague healer, I would be able to get her wings back to their former looks.  
  
It wasn't that I didn't trust Lothlorien with it, as good of a healer as he is. He was my confidant at this point besides the clan medic. The fact of the matter was that we would need either a healer that specialized in plague or one that specialized in reversing it to fix something of this magnitude. I trusted him with many things but as the leader I need to consider more than just the easy fix to the problem.  
  
  
Her sparrowmouse was good company though. After enough persistence she managed to teach it how to sing simple little songs. I had given her the wing wraps that we had laying around. It wouldn't do very much for her wings in terms of helping her fly again, but it would at least help them not deteriorate any worse than they already had. The thing would flit and fly about, but mostly stuck to Nanelia's side.  
  
The thing was though, was that we were struggling with the enemies in the scorched forest. The centaur herds there had grown accustomed and strong against dragons due to the place being passed through quite oftenly by dragons. The qiriq and rambra were also getting more and more rowdy as spring started encroaching on the surroundings.  
  
I vaguely remember battlestones being part of why some of the more strong dragons in my previous clan being so strong and getting so far. I hadn't really thought about that in recent times, though I supposed I would start having to keep my eyes peeled for them.  
  
Things seemed to turn up a bit for a while, but there was a sense of foreboding. I figured it was just the fact that we were now camped in a new place. Time was almost crawling on. I could tell the others were a bit nervous.  
  
Lothlorien and Chaia had been getting closer as friends. It seemed like the two tundras were sticking together because there was a common trait between the two. It seemed like there was more that they talked about but I was more focused on keeping everything coordinated. I suppose it's part of my nature to get absorbed into a passion, but it wouldn't work out in the long run if I didn't even try to communicate with the others. Seliana still had her temper, as usual. The only thing that seemed to calm her down would be the occasional call of the search.  
  
She was starting to get hard to handle, if only because she was closer to my size rather than those of the other clanmates. I seemed to be the only figure of authority she respected, only so because I was slightly larger than her and more experienced. While part of me was sad that she would eventually have to leave, it would probably be for the better when she did.  
  
The dryad made our little area more pretty. There were more flowers popping up, not to mention saplings. Chaia was more than happy to frolic around with the dryad as the two went around making things slightly more presentable around our new makeshift lair.


	14. Shadowed hurdles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group gets a new addition under some incredibly dubious circumstances.

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

It's been getting harder and harder to survive out here. Or more specifically, hunt in that darn scorched forest.  
  
We stuck to the forest paths as a result. The game there had gotten a bit more weary, so we had to look and hunt harder. It was admittedly more frustrating, but it was safer.  
  
Nanelia's been getting better. Chaia hasn't.  
  
It's weird, thinking about it actually. Chaia's been getting more and more paranoid, and I'm starting to suspect it's because she's an oracle of sorts. I'm not quite sure how that works or how common it is among water dragons, but it seems to be what's going on with her. I do the best I can along with Nanelia for keeping her company, but it is clearly wearing on her.  
  
The few of us have become rather tight knit. Even Seliana, who has been more and more tempted to go off on her quest. Lothlorien and I have been talking about it in private about when would be a good time to send her off, as it would be easier if it were sooner but it could also hurt morale. I had settled on waiting for the right time. Maybe another week or two before sending her off.  
  
  
  
The one really interesting thing is that Lothlorien came back with a shadow egg. When I asked him about where he seems to keep finding these eggs(as he had been involved with the three eggs we had found, directly so with two), he said he knew a guy.  
  
"You....  _knew_ a guy." I said flatly at him  
  
"Yes, I knew a guy. Poor guy was ambushed by Maren, being dragged down as it were, and I had managed to wrangle the egg out of their claws before they dragged it under as well.".  
  
  
He was probably making stories up. I hate to be so mistrusting but literally procuring two eggs is somewhat questionable. Finding one with a group by pure chance was odd. Finding one on his own was also a bit odd. It wasn't a coincidence that he had found this egg. Perhaps it was me just being a bit pushy and superstitious, but I was starting to wonder if he conned eggs off of dragons on the side. Sure he was a decent medic and had gotten by on his own using just that, but it was really starting to get fishy. Shadow dragons were as good at lying as they were at games, something I would know being born originally in a shadow clan myself.  
  
Skepticism aside, we waited with baited breath on what would hatch out of this egg. All of us huddled around it, more than expecting to see something interesting, even our few familiars.  
  
  
  
It was surprising to say the least, what had came out of that egg.  
  
  
  
  


 

Of all the things it could have been.  _It had to be a pearlcatcher._  
  
I mean she, of course, but I can almost feel the irony in the air. A shadow imperial, pretty much driven from most lairs due to perceived illness (of gembond variety) had to hatch a  _healthy shadow pearlcatcher_. I suppose I would have to put that aside for now, as it would be just as cruel to throw out a pearlcatcher child as it would be for any other sort of child.  
  
Turning back to the tundra, I shot him a look.  
  
He shrugged before saying "Well, I certainly didn't think she would be a pearlcatcher. The bloke that handed the egg of to me wasn't of that breed at all."  
  
I let out a bit of a sigh before going on a walk. Lothlorien went to follow me, but another look made him stop in his tracks. If I was to be a good leader, I would have to figure out how to get rid of all this baggage that plagued me, emotional or otherwise. I could tell the other three were flabbergasted, if only because of the silence. I was aware that everybody had quieted down, and for the most part we would all gather around the egg as it hatches to welcome the hatchling inside into the world, especially with some encouragement after hatching. I suppose my reaction took them all by surprise, as not even Seliana had made a peep after Lothlorien and I's brief conflict. I suppose my reaction was not the norm as had been with the other two hatchings.  
  
I took a rather long walk before pausing in the thick underbrush. The air was a bit clearer now that I had gotten some space to reflect upon what had happened.  
  
Maybe the Gladekeeper was testing me, to see if I was really worthy to be a leader and lead a clan in her prized territory. It was survival of the fittest and those that weren't strong enough to roam on their own stuck in tight knit groups. If I let these set backs get the better of me, then what would that mean as a leader for a clan, in this territory or otherwise? It was rather ironic having so many shadow dragons in our little group, now being a bit more closer to the shadow and light borders rather than that corner that the previous clan had lived in, near the shadow territory but more specifically close-ish to the dragonhome border.


	15. A Jamboree indeed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wind festival comes and goes, as does the goings on of this ragtag group of dragons.

POV - Tehtalretiel

Seliana hasn't left for her search yet. I wonder if it's cold feet or if it's something else that's bothering her.

We've named the pearlcatcher Selene. The name always brought up shadow flight with me, so that's something.

We've been getting by in our new lair quite well. Everybody's settled down, and Selene has turned into quite the inquisitive dragon. She's very much sensitive to the social standings of our little clan, and has made quick friends with Lothlorien. I think maybe she sees him as a mentor figure of sorts.

A rather odd occurrence had started happening.

A pair of phytocats followed my little hunting group home today. I'm not sure what to make of these two now staying with us, as the only one with relative experience with familiars is nanelia. Sure chaia has the dryad, but for the most part we really don't have that many animal companions hanging around our lair.

We also were met with a letter from some wind clan, bringing cheer for the Mistral jamboree. We couldn't really celebrate that holiday very much due to being too small for both progress and celebration to happen. We were given some food, and the package was accompanied by a Luna Mith. I'm not sure what it is, but Luna miths have always freaked me out. Being extremely smart, but almost avoiding dragons entirely. Not to mention that word had spread that some groups of Mith had been starting to  _make_ things in the shifting expanse.

A death head's stag and an Autumn dryad also eventually wandered home with me, when I came back from hunting with the team. Sticking to the forest paths has it's ups and downs.

I think eventually we're going to need somebody to keep an eye on all these animals now living in our little lair.

 


	16. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group starts to set out for training into the deserts.

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

Things had been quite interesting at least.

For starters we started pushing out into the more arid regions of sornieth in the cover of night.

Even then we can't seem to avoid scuffles with beastclans. Sure it's no centaur herd but serthis do have a nasty habit of coming in swarms.

 

On the brighter side, we've been able to get a decent amount of loot from all of this. the most notible being a greatshell that Chaia had been a bit attatched about, and a storm seeker. I can't say I'm fond of storm seekers but Selene will be happy. She's taken it upon herself to help the animals.

In brighter news, I had managed to bater for some equipment from a lightning dragon that would help nanelia fly again. She was more than happy to receive the articles in question. It had been quite a long time since she had flown due to her condition and illness deteriorating parts of her wings and making other bits rather pale. Shortly after she started fliting and flying around the lair. Everybody was particularly happy about Nanelia getting somewhat better.

The most interesting part is that Seliana still hasn't left for her search. I know at some point she should leave for it but maybe it's just cold claws. I've tried subtly giving her hints about it, but I can't say that things have been going very smoothly with her short temper.

 

The worst part was I was caught in a scuffle. A very bad scuffle.

 

A scuffle from a particular someone from my previous clan. Another Imperial who at this point seemed to have a feud against us. He was looking for Nanelia. I feigned ignorance and tried to play off the fact that for all he knew I was a loner who hadn't seen her after taking her out of the flight's immediate boundaries(that being where they all lived, not their entire claimed territory).

Of course I couldn't keep that up forever. He did leave a particular nugget of information for me though. Told me to be wary of any tundras, mostly because a particularly kleptomatic wildclaw had been turned into a tundra by one of those breed change scrolls in an attempt to curb his impulses. He said that he fled the clan after that, and had become a fugitive. While it wasn't any of his business, I knew at least parts of that old clan would be aware of it given the occupation of some of those dragons.

 

When I returned, Lothlorien was pacing around, almost anxiously. We had been getting steadily and steadily stronger, and I could see the look on his face.

 

"I should step down from this team once Nanelia's strong enough to be a competent caster."

"Why? You've been doing very well."

"Let's face it, it's getting harder and harder for us to push forward. We need more elemental diversity."

I contemplated that for a short while. Nanelia on the team would round things out slightly more than having two shadow dragons and a water dragon. Maybe not by very much but it would be better.

"Alright. But only once she's comfortable and confident enough in her health and ability will she be allowed, given her condition."

That would be great. While she had accompanied some little training trips with us so I could teach her some basic self defense, I didn't want to push her if it would be a detriment to her health, even if she were a bit hardier as a plague dragon.

My clan at that point had been somewhat functioning on it's own. Even with Seliana eventually leaving, it would be able to thrive. I really wished we had more in our little ragtag group.

"There's something else that's rather pressing, Tehtalretiel."

"What?" I inquired, now more curious about why he seemed anxious.

 

"Selene found a harpy chick. And she decided it was better to take the youngling back to our lair rather than leave the poor thing where she found it."

" _WHAT?!_ " I almost immediately snapped at him. While I had no personal ill will towards beastfolk (if anything I tried avoiding conflict with them at all costs) I couldn't say that I would willingly take one in despite that. The thought struck me that I probably should have explained to most of the other clan members the whole issue surrounding beastclans and to avoid any unnecessary contact. I knew Selene was the nurturing sort to begin with, but bringing in a young harpy right to our lair? We could very well have a harpy raid kill us all once the next dawn came for effectively kidnapping one of them.

Upon entering our lair, I immediately set off to find that pearlcatcher.

I found her secluded in her room, looking after the young thing. I couldn't tell whether or not it was conscious, given I couldn't quite fit into that room (due to my size), but I was not happy that she had indeed brought that into our lair.

 

She said she had found it by the tundra with the large pile. That she was worried about it being injured, so she thought she could just take the thing right into the lair and have Lothlorien patch it up before I came back.

Since it did seem to be unconscious, I made it clear to everybody that I would come to a decision once it woke up. It would be needlessly mean to impose something while it were alseep. I would at least give it that level of mercy, even if many of their kind would not give me the same.

At the very least it was the coloration found most often with scouts. It could very well be likely that if we did have to keep this one, it might not be missed. Maybe it was sent out to make an outpost? Or wrangle that feral one that my previous clan's leader had as an apprentice of sorts. I didn't quite understand  _that_ situation in it's entirety, but I did know that he had a harpy and he had obtained it under dubious means (whether or not it was really abandoned or he just stole it was up in the air as far as I was concerned).

In either case, it would be a slightly easier problem to deal with than any of the more aggressive harpy flocks.

 


	17. Spring

POV - Tehtalretiel

I went fishing and had found a giant shrimp. It's rather peculiar but otherwise it seems docile enough. I think Selene will be happy about it. She has such a big heart and cares very much about our clan and it's members(even the little critters).

 

 

I can't say that things went well aside from that.

For starters Loth showed up with another egg, this time one from our actual provinces and not some random egg(like chaia's, seliana's and selene's).

It was then I confronted him about that recent bit of information I had received from the one who was still apparently tailing Nanelia.

"Where do you keep getting these eggs? It's starting to become rather worrysome, especially with what I had heard recently."

"What  _have_ you heard then?" He asked, interested yet slightly anxious.

"That a wildclaw from the tangled woods had ran off from his clan after his punishment. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

"oh" He said with a pause. "You might not like the next tidbit of news then. I found it in the harpy's satchel. It seems that this one might have took to being an egg thief for the profit."

I frowned. It was then that I heard something stirring up at the lair.

When Lothlorien and I arrived to the scene things seemed like they were going really downhill.

 

 

The harpy had woken up, but the poor thing didn't speak draconic at all. From the way it was acting, the poor chick might have been separated from her flock. She looked just barely an adult, but things didn't help the situation at hand. Chaia and Nanelia were trying to cautiously approach it, with Seliana hanging back in case things were to go south. Selene had put herself between the panicked harpy and the other two dragons.

Chaia and Nanelia didn't seem to understand the fear that they were causing the harpy. I told Lothlorien to go get the egg and keep an eye on it. My presence alone seemed to split up the potential fight.

Selene returned to the room Loth and Chaia had carved out for her with the harpy in tow. She seemed a bit frustrated that the others (aside from Me and Lothlorien) would be a bit curious. Seliana thankfully had a good enough understanding of beastclans to keep her distance(I assume it is from the short period of time she went through training and went through the scorched forests.).

 

We all took turns keeping an eye on the hatchling while the others attended to the daily chores.

Eventually the little egg did hatch, and it was given quite the welcome, even from Selene. Thankfully Seliana hung back and kept that harpy from getting too close or interfering. Not that I liked using her imposing stature, but since she seems to not have left yet, we might as well put that to use.

It was a young tundra, this time a male and certainly not blue (in either eyes or fur).

We came to the decision to call him Baskel. Seems like a fitting enough name. I've found that I have dwelt in the more depressing aspects of starting out a new clan without the direct blessings of a deity. I will try to keep my chin up going forward, as while I may originate from the tangled woods, I should at least try to be respectful of the Gladekeeper if I am to live in her lands.

 


	18. Spring

POV - Tehtalretiel

  
It was quite peculiar what had happened.

 

 

 

 

Firstly, Baskel grew into a fine young tundra. Since I now have three tundras living in this lair, they have started sleeping relatively close to each other, having carved out a room for themselves with smaller personal rooms extending out from that.

 

Selene is still keen on keeping that harpy chick, and at this point I can understand why the flock seemed to have abandoned her. While it's not quite obvious at a glance, the chick seems prone to seizures (or at least that's what Lothlorien describes those fits as). It's understandable that they would want to get rid of any liabilities, so they simply abandoned her in one of their migration patterns, leaving her to fend for herself. The poor thing still doesn't understand draconic, but she has been clingy with selene, who happens to be the only one the harpy isn't immediately scared of (or more appropriately, selene is the least scary of us). From what I can gain from the others, she seems to be slowly adjusting to living with dragons after being so suddenly left for dead.

I wound up briefing all of my little clan about not interacting too much with the beastclans unless it's known _for sure_ that they aren't aggressive towards dragons. If they were interacting with truly peaceful beastfolk, that would be fine. I just wanted them to know it wasn't okay to mess with the more aggressive ones. I even made a point to say that the harpy chick was an honorary dragon if she so desired to stay here, but we would wait until she knew our language and could make the choice on her own(as it would be really cruel to force that upon anything that didn't want to stay here.).

 

Seliana went on her search, and it was about time. The weird part is that she came back afterwards, with another guardian in tow. Apparently she was this guardian's charge, and the guardian was also her charge. I don't quite understand this(due to not being a guardian myself), but from what I can gather, this isn't a very common occurrence.

 

 

Rynurna, as it were, was on her search for a very long time. I wouldn't know the exact details except that a guardian just simply  _knows_ what it's charge is when they find it, and once she encountered Seliana she simply knew, and Seliana also knew in a likewise fashion. She's a bit smaller than Seliana herself, but she is much older and wiser, even surpassing me in age.

She was wearing assorted pieces of armor when she came in, all of them being crimson. It was quite offputting that this one had been on her search for so long, no to mention that she  _far_  surpassed my own age and wisdom. It wasn't that I felt jealous or invalidated due to her presence, it just felt as if it put more pressure on me to do the right choice now that there was one that could easily qualify for my position should I fail.

Lothlorien's been busy, being the medic and trying to take Nanelia under his wing so she may learn how to use magic for offensive measures as well as healing others. Nanelia isn't taking to it well though. Sometimes she flies up to her amber nest in the far corner of our lair and stays in there for long stretches of time. I'm starting to wonder if she's becoming lonely due to the lack of other faes. I can tell it's already off-putting since she doesn't have that many dragons to relate to in this clan in terms of simply speaking.

 


	19. Struggles and Normalcy

 

POV - Tehtalretiel

  
  
Things have settled to a bit of a sense of normalcy.  
  
Rynurna's fitting in well with Seliana. They share a lair they built to accommodate their size not to far away from ours.  
  
Our little clan hasn't changed very much otherwise in terms of particularly  _life changing_  events. We still don't have a name for our clan. Nanelia's also getting better at combat, even though her "team" of sorts are the two guardians. Baskel and Selene have expressed no desire to get involved with combat, and I wouldn't force them to unless we were in great peril.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I've become more and more obsessed about keeping this small little clan running, since there are enough dragons to call it a proper clan. Loth's managed to keep Nanelia's abberation under control, so her wings will look normal and she could fly without the assistance of the prosthetics (if that steampunk contraption could be called that), but those tendrils that ate away at her wings will come back. From what Lothlorien's told me, since she's a plague dragon she could make it go into remission with her willpower, but that was hypothetically down the long road. Right now, we can make it go away for short periods of time before it creeps back and starts eating her wings again. She's rather lucky that she's a plague fae that caught this, and not a fae of another flight, since things become quite more lethal once you take the plague's resilience and aptitude for disease out of the question. A dragon that can't naturally fly(that also isn't a snapper) is one that wouldn't last long on it's own should they cross paths with beastclans nowdays. I suppose it was a matter of support and not being in such territories but thankfully Nanelia had the advantage of support.  
  
  
The Wavecrest Saturnalia came and went. It wasn't particularly eventful save Loth collecting them to be sold to other dragons who seemed compelled to collect them. I didn't hate holidays per se, but it isn't easy for me to get into the festive fever that seems to infect so many. Selene and Baskel had lots of fun, being the only two that stuck around the lairs when we were out. It wasn't common to have both hunting parties out at the same time, for security reasons, but sometimes we needed it out of necessity.  
  
My gembond is bugging me, the darn illness. Sure I was borne with it, but it wasn't the decorative form that is completely harmless. I wound up inheriting a bad strain of it rather than the harmless sort (since there is a difference).  
  
  
Our settlement has become quite more familiar, and we've settled in enough to actually rotate chores outside of sending off hunting parties.  
  
I've been thinking about giving our clan a nice name. The clan Nanelia and I were previously members of was called Ibiliven. While it would be nice to follow that, I am keeping my mind open for inspiration. Maybe the gladekeeper will give me some inspiration.


	20. A drop of happiness

POV - Tehtalretiel

 

 

Things had been really really busy as of late. I hate to impose, dear journal of mine, but this will be a very lengthy exposition.

 

We've cleaned up our general lair space a bit. Sure it's still a bit hilly (At this point, i'm sure those are smallish mountains; it can be a bit of a stretch on my perspective due to the rest of my clan's relative size.). Still, most of the nature territory that is somewhat close to the ocean is very flat. From what I could tell it was in a a dell of sorts, it just happened to have some hills and outcroppings in it.

We had taken up roost and dug out an inselburg at one end of the dell, with Seliana and Rynurna living in a cave they dug out of a nearby hill. The sight is rather pretty outside of what damage my group had done to make it habitable for dragons.

Most of the smaller dragons live in a bit of a cave system in the Inselburg that i'm residing in. Most of it extends well underground as well as up into the hill itself, with the largest areas being the ones I generally occupy. Like I figure earlier, it's probably good for defense if some angry beastclans come inside and see my large figure rather than the much smaller figures of my clan.

 

 

In other news, Baskel has been having some issues with his vision. I've been meaning to find a pair of glasses that will help him with this, but it's not quite as easy as I anticipated. I think the poor dragon is near sighted, which while isn't a terrible thing like Nanelia's condition, it might be problematic for the youth.

 

 

In brighter news, it's been a great Greenskeeper's gathering. I suspect that the Gladekeeper does approve of me starting a little clan in her corner of Sornieth given the fact that she hasn't had any clans drive us out or has personally tried to inflict some sort of punishment. It would be the worst case scenario if we were to have her literally barge in and throw us out into the lands of the other flights.

 

While the others were out hunting, gathering, or simply doing the odd chores around our lair, I decided to patrol the areas around our little self imposed borders. while there was a very dense jungle within the immediate proximity (from what i've heard it's called the rainsong jungle), I don't dare let any of our little group go into those jungles. I haven't even been in those jungles but from what I can hear outside of the overwhelming silence within the jungle isn't very good. Granted i'm not sure how good primate-like animals are in the first place, but I would rather those creatures be there rather than here.

Anyways, as I was doing my patrol I saw a speck off in the distance. Upon closer inspection it was another water egg. This one seemed to be legitimately abandoned, which was slightly comforting if not a bit concerning(because if Lothlorien's statements are true about the amounts of abandoned eggs he seems to encounter), than quite possibly there was a water clan that might have had their eggs stolen or dumped into the labyrinth. Granted the activities of the unbound wildclaw populations might be a contributing factor to this. Even wildclaw populations that are flighted to the gladekeeper might be attribute to this phenomena.

In either case, I came across another water egg, laying in a stream. Before I could even pick it it started to hatch, probably from the fresh water source of the stream. I leaned in and looked closely at it to try and figure what sort of dragon would be inside of this egg, since I would hope that this isn't another pearlcatcher.

It wasn't. Thankfully it was a mirror. From what I could tell it was a girl as well. I would hope that my clan might eventually get more faes for Nanelia's sake, but in the mean time this young one would be a new and prized member of my little clan. I carefully picked up the young mirror and brought it back to the lair for Lothlorien to give an examination. There was a bit of excitement about that, and even Selene's harpy cautiously observed the young Mirror. Most of the clan took to it very well, and I'm happy that Seliana didn't decide to squish the young hatchling. She's been more and more interested in trying to weed out dragons that she thought weren't "earning their stay". Thankfully Rynurna kept her in line, both in that mindset and quite literally. I've come to respect the older guardian for her contributions to the clan, and she's more than welcome to stay in my little clan.

I've decided to name her Tajah. It's a simple yet very remember-able name. Not that I hate my longer name, but it's a mouthful. Nowadays I stick by the nickname Lothlorien's given me (Tehta), but at least for anything formal I go by Tehtalretiel.

Reflecting upon it now, I don't think it's quite as small as I say it is. I'm sure it will only grow more as time passes. I've been pondering about some of the more formal things associated with a clan, like a name or sigil / emblem to be associated with it. I don't have a lot of solid ideas at the moment but I will come up with something soon enough to legitimize our existence as a separate clan. Things are going a lot better now then they had when we were nothing more than a small band of dragons taking shelter in a cave.

 


	21. Hurdles we face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new POV! Another interesting take on things.

POV - Nanelia

 

Things have been really rough. Seliana and Rynurna both died.

It’s hard. It’s really hard seeing that happen right before your eyes. I’m probably a very large coward for running away after those two nigh intangible birds were done mauling the two guardians and had looked towards me. I know a sense of self preservation was probably driving me to run away rather than stay and try to fight, but even then those two birds managed to chase me and attack for a while. It got better when they eventually turned back, but I am still really guilty. I could have done something, anything, to try and help them but I didn’t. I should have done something yet I didn’t. What could a small and nearly flightless fae like me have done in that situation?

I flew to the best of my ability and then stumbled and ran back to our lair to try and tell Tehtalretiel. I didn’t know who else would be strong enough to try and recover their bodies. The tundras probably would have a struggle with just one of the bodies. He tried comforting me to the best of his abilities as he brought the bodies close enough to our lair that we would be able to visit them. I just felt so numb and detached as he explained this to the rest of our little group and we started burying the bodies.

It wasn’t received all that well, but a lot better than how I took it the last time members of our little group had passed.

In other news, baskel has been scurrying off a lot as of late. I can tell he’s interested in something and has been keeping rather quiet about it. The other tundras don’t seem to mind him scurrying off, since Lothlorien seems to do that once in a while as well. It’s hard to discern from my amber nest. The nest is quite large, but I have to do a lot of climbing since the steampunk wings can only do so much for a fae whose wing membranes are damaged. I have been looking into a longer term cure for my Abberation but I don’t think there’s a way to cure it unless maybe one of the eleven decided to intervene.

Chaia, Lothlorien, and teht took me out with their group to try and train me. I can tell they are considering having me on their team rather than Lothlorien, and I would hope that Loth is okay with that change. I suspect part of it was also to get Seliana and Rynurna’s deaths off of my mind. Something really interesting had happened.

 

A serthis had joined our little group. He seemed interested in my wings, which is uncomfortable since most of those snake creatures were really aggressive towards dragon kind. Teht had said that not all beastclan creatures may be aggressive, and the serthis were some of the more aggressive members. It seemed that this one was a lone one though, and we had only spotted it as it was coming over a sand dune a short ways away. Chaia charged it and was about to lunge at it when the Serthis threw his hands up and shouted at us to stop in draconic. There weren’t that many spoken languages from dragons (that I know of anyways), but it came as a surprise that this one knew our language. From what I gathered beastclans seldom use our languages unless in diplomatic terms (which some small groups apparently did) or when shouting at us when they ambush us.

He said he didn't want to fight, and was looking for somebody to take him in. Chaia got off of him (She had managed to tackle him by the time he had said that he didn't want to fight). We then took him home.

 

Baskel took a liking to the Serthis. I think it might be because the two have similar interests in magic, but I wouldn't know. Baskel seems intimidated by my age and sometimes avoids me.

Speaking of the tundras, Tajah has been hanging out with them. I assume tundra groups and mirror packs are similar enough in behavior that it allows for some overlap when the two cohabit the same lair. Tajah likes ramming things with her horns, which the tundras go along with. Thankfully it seems when they literally but heads both parties are relatively okay.

[](http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=13619116)   


 

 

I am worried about Tajah though. Her wings are small. Smaller than the normal healthy size wings should be. I would hope that her wings grow, since she is still growing. I would hope that she doesn't become disheartened if she can't physically fly due to a birth defect given how much everybody else here flies, save me and Teht (for good reason; he's way to big to be around safely when he lifts off into the sky). Lothlorien and Selene both have enormous wingspans in comparison to their size, and with the rest of our groups regularly flying to get to far off places, I hope she doesn't become disheartened in the event that she physically cannot fly.

At the very least she has good company in Baskel, the tundra is smaller than her and most of the others (except for me) after all. I think the two get along very well. At the very least most of us seem to get along, except for Selene and Teht. Lothlorien's mentioned that it's something about Imperial culture that strains their relationship on Teht's end, which annoys me. I think it might help for me to look into imperial behavior a bit more, since they're almost the least social of the dragon kinds out there.

 


	22. Strange going-ons

POV - Nanelia

  
  
Things have been getting worse.  
  
She (Tajah) grew, and her wings remained tiny and stunted.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
She didn’t mind, as her wings weren’t the only ones that were anatomically off. Lothlorien’s wingspan was almost twice his length. And Selene’s now one of the largest among us after Tehtalretiel.  
  
It was one of the reasons I was hesitant to let her go hunting with Selene and Baskel (I was nervous about the whole affair, since pearlcatchers and tundras have been known to be more keen on using magic on the offensive unless convinced otherwise, as was the case with Chaia). Baskel seemed a runt, and with Tajah not being able to really fly, this seemed like a recipe for disaster. I wasn’t going to stop them though, because with the aggressive beastclans encroaching it would be wise to have all of us have experience with battle.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It was terrible when they came back dragging Tajah’s long and mangled body into our camp.  
  
  
Teht was somewhat angry that they dragged the corpse right back to our lair rather than leave it at the edge of our little clearing. It was hard enough looking at seliana’s now abandoned lair that was not too far from our own (ours being those of us that weren’t that large), but it didn’t help my mood when he told them off.  
  
  
  
It took me shouting at him to get him to not be so harsh. From what I could make of the pair’s crying, an owl had managed to get lucky with her. She tried to fly away but simply couldn’t get off of the ground.  
  
  
  
  
Selene was heartbroken, and the harpy chick that she keeps around as a companion seemed to try it’s best with consoling her. The Serthis, who had opted to stay with us for reasons which I can’t quite fathom (given how Serthis seem to normally keep vendettas with dragon kind) also tried. The young harpy sticks with the Serthis just as much as she does selene due to the fact that the beast clans seem to share a common language of sorts for communications, which the harpy chick knows more of than draconic. It seemed since he was driven out of his little pocket group of Serthis, he wanted to find some sort of protection from the wild animals. As he said “What’s better than staying with the race that put itself on the top of the foodchain by force?”.  
  
  
  
Apparently from what he (and many other beastclan members that aren’t normally active in conflicts) understood, was that our kind was the scourge of the lands, bringing about the apocalypse or something like that.  
  
  
Teht also mentioned that there seemed to be another dragon in our area. Whoever they were, they were mooching off of the fact that we had developed some sort of reputation with the weaker wildlife so they steered clear of us and our little lair. Teht also said that they had tracked the dragon down and apparently there were strong words that were said to try to get this rogue dragon to leave, but they didn’t want to.  
  
  
He said he was rather hesitant with letting another dragon into our group, especially after losing so many of us to wild animals. He said he was also hesitant to try and drive this freeloader out of our little claimed area.  
  
  
  
  
I yelled at him. I told him if he really was trying to have his own little clan, than why were we dropping like flies? The guilt of not being able to help Rynurna and Seliana was wearing me down enough, I didn’t want anybody else to die! Why wouldn’t he do something about this freeloader? What if they were strong enough to drive him out of our area, what then?  
  
We then gave Tajah an appropriate grave right outside of our little clearing close to Rynurna and Seliana. After a brief period of silence, Baskel turned and walked back to his little room.  
  
“Baskel, I’m really sor-“  
  
“ _I don’t want to hear it!_ ”  
  
  
The brief confrontation between the two tundras was the only thing that got my mind off of Tajah’s death, even if it was brief. Lothlorien was trying to comfort the younger tundra but Baskel wasn’t going to have it. The two were pretty much older and younger sibling at this point.  
  
The tension in the air for the rest of the night was such that you could probably catch a claw on it if you tried to swipe through it. Teht didn’t talk very much for the rest of the day. There was something funny going on with his claws (that I noticed anyways), yet he didn’t bring it up. I assume it was a long and hard day for everybody. He seems to be slipping into a downhill spiral but at this point, I was beginning to question why exactly he thought this was a good idea? That we could survive out here?  
  


* * *

I was really hoping tajah would make it to lvl 8 so Loth would have a team mate that could scratch up opponents. Her wings were really tiny anatomically speaking, and while her length could have very well been in the neck/tail areas, her wings were small enough for there to be some concern with writing her in the nuzlocke.  
  
  
  



	23. Developments

POV - Nanelia

 

I am rather off put about everything that’s happened since Tajah left. The mooch has apparently shown herself and she’s managed to get our clan leader to have a nest with her. They even hatched some offspring. All ridgebacks like the mother. Loth’s mentioned that since imperials are sorta unstable in their existence, they have really wonky lifespans, either dying young or living to long age quite inexplicably. That thrown into the fact that he does have that gembond condition and that we don’t have the luxury of a cushy life like some clans, and that maybe he would be a bit keen on progressing his bloodline. None of them that I’ve seen seem to have gembond, so that’s good.

 

It’s still off-putting that he wouldn’t tell us about this sooner. The fact that he kept this from us is worrying. I’m worried about space issues when these three younglings grow up, but I try to not let it bug me too much. It’s not uncommon that hatchlings leave the nest. It was lucky that they are healthy, but it’s to be expected that at least one or two of them will leave once they are grown up.

 

 

Nida has named the three Ramona, Silmeria, and Kayka. Nida has also mentioned that she is fine with selling them if that means they would be going to brighter futures. I am somewhat offended since there is something wrong with selling hatchlings so young, but I guess if she thinks that maybe those who would purchase them would be giving them proper care than it isn’t that bad. It does seem a bit offensive to imply that we couldn’t take care of them, but from what Loth’s managed to get from Teht, is that it could help with the space issues. I don’t like that they are trying to make selling young and defenseless hatchlings a reasonable choice.

 

 

I know me and Baskel aren’t doing very well. It seems to be the wrong mindset that I should have died back when those birds were on me, but I was a coward. I should have stayed and done something, anything, yet I didn’t. Chaia reminds me a lot (whenever I’m not in my amber nest) that it’s not my fault, but she wouldn’t know. She wasn’t there. I’ve been trying to keep a strong face for baskel though. He’s a runt, and he was really close to Tajah. The two might as well have been siblings. He’s becoming rather consumed in his dabblings, and I hope that while he does see success in alchemy, that he doesn’t do anything extreme as a result of losing Tajah.

 

Tensions are rather thick, and that Serthis has been helping to the best of his ability with everything. I assume that it has to be rough at some point when clans start out before things level out into better days.

 

Speaking of which, Baskel has been trying to get information out of the serthis. I assume it’s because of their magic and potion ability which is rather unique (and thus appealing to Baskel who seems to be hiding his alchemy hobby). Granted he also got kinda weird about our little clan’s history. I know I probably should have told Teht that we went to visit our old lair where Keion is buried. Baskel took a lot of interest in the fact that apparently even at this old lair things weren’t as easy as he would have been led to believe with our relatively good times at the newer lair.

 

 

That youngling is up to something. I don’t know  _what_ and as stupid as it sounds, my gut is telling me  _it’s not good news_. I think I will tell tehtalretiel to keep an eye on him and to try to make sure he’s okay.

 


	24. According to plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get some insight on Baskel and what he's scheming.

POV - Baskel

****

Hopefully this plan will work out well.

 

 

  


I’ve managed to get Selene and Silmeria in on this, although I stretched the truth quite a bit. Ramona’s pretty much set on leaving but won’t do it unless the clan she’s moving to would be willing to pay Teht a sum of money (for financial stability as she’s said). It will be quite some time before I think it would be feasible to dig up the skeleton and not have anybody notice. I would have to do this mostly by myself, since Selene is too vain to dig it up with me. Silmeria could do it, but she’s too large and clumsy to reliably be able to keep the bones intact.

 

  

  
Of course I wouldn’t be able to get either Chaia or Loth to dig it up since I’m sure they are aware about the burial rites of the imperials, and there would be no convincing Tehtalretiel to go back to the burial site now that I’ve found it. Their cooperation is valuable in this endeavor and it's a shame I don't know who else would be open to such a radical idea. I certainly don't think Teht or Loth would be on my side, and the uncertainty about whether or not Chaia would side with them is also concerning.

 

 

Nanelia didn’t show me the burial site directly, since she only knew the vague area of where he was buried, so I don’t know whether or not to let her in on my plan or not. She could very well just be unaware, but if it’s due understanding the rites, than she would be a large liability.

In the meantime I’m going to need a decent amount of sacrifices. Not counting the others in the clan, we’ll probably need a few more dragons to get things going. As long as Teht doesn’t notice me using a little bit of treasure and the two I have helping me with this keep their maws shut, I should be able to get this done in about a week and a half tops. I only need about two or three more other dragons to recruit to do this.

 

 

 

I’m sure if imperials can _randomly reanimate themselves_  if their remains aren’t handled well, than why can’t this magical property be used to bring back more dragons? It’s curious as to why nobody’s thought about this before. Or if they have, it’s been kept quite quiet; I don’t know how strong emperors would be to deities or if deities even tolerate their presence. I think this won’t end in that, and that is the worst case scenario (that trying to alchemically combine Tajah’s bones with this imperial’s bones will result in an emperor), but I’m sure Teht and Nida could fend it off well enough. I’m sure combining the bones will simply bring her back as her good old self, provided I also give the concoction some more animated things rather than bones alone.

 


	25. A moment of silence

POV - Baskel

  
  
I have already sacrificed several dragons, and it will obviously take more.  
  
Ramona and Kayka have already left, so Silmeria is the only one of the hatchling’s that’s still around. This is good in the sense that now we have more space for bringing in more sacrifices. It’s actually kind of surprising how lucrative this is becoming.  
  
In other news I’ve gotten a hold of a necromancy recipe, and while it is quite dubious in the fact that it’s coming off of some earrings, it’s a good basic model for what I should be trying.  
  
Chaia and Lothlorien are on to me though. I think I will be able to initiate everything later this week and by that point it won’t matter. There would be nothing in the world that could stop me from doing this. I'm sure Nanelia's also noticed something but what could she do? What could she really do to me?  
  
  
  
Tajah will be coming back soon enough. I have no doubt in my mind that she will be coming back and everything will be better. On that train of thought though I should probably look into the other recently deceased dragons. Maybe if I throw their bones into the mix they'll come back too. It would be worth a shot, and i'm sure that while my family wouldn't quite approve of the methods, the end result should justify the means.  
  
  


* * *

 

POV - Nanelia

  
I’m worried about him.  
  
He’s been avoiding the others save Silmeria and Selene, and the pair have been dodging questions about what they’ve been up to. He seems to be getting paranoid about something and  _that alone_  is concerning. I'm not even sure that they really  _know_ what's going on with him.  
  
While Lothlorien, Chaia, and Tehtalretiel think that he’s doing better due to keeping up with dragons, I don’t think this is actually the case. They’re up to something.  
  
I sure hope whatever it is that they up to makes him happy. I can tell he’s hurting on the inside still and still refuses to talk about Tajah. He acts as if she’s only gone on a trip and will be coming back shortly.


	26. Something wicked this way comes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dramatic use of the third person POV! Things come to a close!

POV – third person

 

****

The air was still. Eerily still.

 

 

 

One could say the whole forest was muted and silent.

 

 

 

 

Baskel grinned at his plan. He had dug up the bones,  _all of them_ , and had managed to procure a cauldron of sorts to have put them all in. It couldn’t hurt to have extra bones in the ritual anyways. He had also done everything that would help this ritual work. He drew the circles and needed runes in chalk and ink around the pot. He had sacrificed several dragons. It was all done to a T.

All that was left was to get the concoction, and thus the ritual, going. He hastily started dumping the oozes, goops, sludges, and other assorted items into the pot. He was stirring the increasingly vile stew with a large stick he had procured in order to help things along, but this wouldn’t suffice on it’s own now that he’s managed to get the right amount of sacrifices for this to “properly” start. He didn’t want to run the risk of blowing it.

He started with the chanting, and the two he had roped in were watching from a distance, not quite sure of what he was doing but still there to provide what they thought was moral support. If he was doing an experiment (as they were told) they would be there to support him.

 

 

 

 

 

It was then that the rest of the clan came upon the scene by coincidence and accident, with most of them being confused. Nanelia shouted that this was what she was talking about, and Selene immediately tried to defend baskel only to become unsure herself of what the smaller tundra was exactly doing.

 

 

 

It was then that they heard a noise from the pot. A harsher silence fell over the clan as most of them approached the now shaking cauldron with cautious curiosity. It was then that things started going awry.

 

 

Lothlorien and Silmeria were the first to realize that something was indeed _very wrong_ about all of this. It was too late though. The cauldron had started to violently shake, and several tendrils shot out of it. Lothlorien let out a screech of fear as a writhing mass of  _thing_ (for lack of better term) had started to pull itself out of the pot, and it had a very firm grip on him. Silmeria had let out a shriek and had started to immediately pull herself away from the offending blob but it wasn’t of much use.

Tehtalretiel was petrified as he watched the mass start to drag the two dragons towards it with suprising speed, and Nanelia furiously shouted at him to do something. The tiny fae went as far as to try to scale the great imperial’s neck in order to get his eyes off of the scene and his head back into the situation.

 

 

 

Chaia had  _bolted_ , plain and simple. Most of the other dragons were getting caught up in this (that she knew of) seemed to be unable to change their very near fates, so she did the only thing she knew;  _ran_.

 

 

 

 

Baskel kept his back to the monstrosity he had inadvertently created and summoned while it was pulling the two struggling dragons into itself. He said in a voice much too calm for the situation to remain calm. Lothlorien had stopped thrashing by the time the mass had completely engulfed his upper half, and had stopped resisting. This sent Silmeria into a blind panic as she tried even more feverently to get herself away from the situation.

Selene tried to fly away, but was grabbed by a tendril around the neck and forcefully  _yanked_ to the ground, before being dragged to the writhing mass. Tehtalretiel started backing up slowly, with Nanelia perched on his head shouting at him to fly away.

 

 

 

As Baskel turned around and fully realized that things  _hadn’t gone to plan_ , he simply stood there and awaited his fate. As the mass pulled selene into itself, it started to drape itself over the very small tundra.

By then the mass had consumed most that were in it’s adjacent area. It was then that the imperial let out a deafening roar, one of both rage, panic, and fear. The mass responded in kind (with a shrill shriek) and had lunged.

 

 

Tehtalretiel managed to knock back the mass with a swipe, where it disintegrated. It flailed it’s limbs and tenticles as it fell and knocked Nanelia to the ground as it fell itself. It hit the ground with a resounding thud before dissipating.

Tehtalretiel wasn't entirely sure the thing was dead, but after a brief pause it seemed the thing had disappeared for good.

 

 

 

 

 

Now generally assured that it was indeed safe, the imperial looked down to the fae that was laying on the ground. Upon closer inspection, the fae seemed unconscious. He very gently picked up the tiny creature and cradled it in his fore paw.

 

 

_He couldn’t protect them_. Not really. He didn’t know  _what_  had happened to Chaia, but he knew for certain that the others were dead now.  _They were all dead_. Save him and this tiny,  _tiny_ fae.

He looked at his claws. They had been faintly glowing aside from the fact that the gembond had overtaken them. He didn’t know if they were responsible for dispatching that… That  _thing_. If the gladekeeper had given him the strength to do that he didn’t know. In either case though, what was done was done.

_They were all dead or missing._

His little clan wasn't much more than a single pair.


End file.
